JEFFERSON COUNTY, Alabama - There's a new deputy sheriff in town, and she might just be the cutest yet.

That's not sexist. It's fact.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday announced the arrival of Naiyah, a 14-week-old Bloodhound who specializes in tracking missing people. "She is a very unique tracking dog in that she can go into a crowd without being distracted from her mission,'' said Chief Deputy Randy Christian. "With apologies to our other K-9's, she also wins the cutest puppy award."

Naiyah was donated to the sheriff's office by the Jimmy Ryce Center for Victims of Predatory Abduction. The organization donates Bloodhounds to law-enforcement agencies for use in helping find missing or abducted children.

On Sept. 11, 1995, 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce was kidnapped at gunpoint from his school bus stop in Florida, sodomized, and shot as he was trying to escape. His parents, Don and Claudine Ryce, launched the organization a year later in honor of Jimmy and his courage in trying to get home even after hours of pain and humiliation.

A Bloodhound has 60 times the scent power of a German Shepherd and is the only dog that can follow a human trail more than a few hours old. "A Bloodhound is your best single bet for bringing a child, abducted by a predator, home, alive,'' the parents say on their website. "We believe that Jimmy would be alive today if a Bloodhound had immediately been brought in to search for our son."

Naiyah joins six others in the sheriff's K-9 unit: three bomb dogs and three drug dogs. The sheriff's office recently retired two that will live with their former partners as pets, and another died from natural causes.

Naiyah, a name that comes from a Greek word meaning follower, will begin training immediately with plans to join the patrol division in six months. Christian said that in addition to tracking missing or abducted children, she will also help in tracking criminal suspects and missing adults. "She will be able to discriminate specific scents allowing her to track a single person even through a crowd,'' he said.

"We are very grateful to receive this donated addition,'' Christian said, "and I know she and her partner are going to do great things for Jefferson County for years to come."